Franklin Tile Company and American Olean decorative tile sets

The vintage pink and maroon tile in Naomi’s pink bathroom sure was beautiful, but my eyes really got to poppin’ when I spied those decorative bird tiles dotting the tub surround. I knew right away to ask Bungalow Bill if he could identify them, and fast as a whip, he did.

The tiles, he said, are by American Olean — their Water Bird Series. Since Naomi’s tiles are all red, pink and white, it seems pretty clear that you could order the available series’ in a number of color ways.

 He had a 1950 catalog that showed them. He scanned the relevant pages, sent the scans over, and wrote:

This catalog dates to 1950.

The Franklin Tile Company merged with the American Encaustic Tile Company in the late 1930′s and eventually became American Olean. Designs from each company continued to be in production and can be found with different marks depending on what year it was made.

Some links in case you’d like to use pics of any real tiles in your post:

[Here are links on Bungalow Bill's site to tiles he has available for sales from this vintage American Olean/Franklin series]:

Franklin Goose tile

Multi-color angel fish

Pink angel fish on lavender tile

The Proposal – colonial silhouette tile, above

9-tile flower basket, American Encaustic Tile Co.

Here are all the pages that Bungalow Bill sent, so you can see the complete variety of series’:

 Thank you, Bill — as usual, your instantaneous knowledge of vintage bathroom tile comes to the rescue!

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